Hi Nick

Normally metal spinning is done between headstock and tailstock, the way
you are doing it is very dangerous imo.

Only deadsoft alluminium and pewter are not work hardened, gold silver
copper brass and alluminium are work hardened.
you need good lubrication while spinning or you get the galling that you
got.

I think that you should use pewter for what you are trying to do, it's a
lot easier to work with, copper also works well and is less costly and
can be annealed easily.

The book: "Turn a bowl with Ernie Conover" has a couple of pages devoted
to metal spinning.

Here are a couple of links to metal and metal spinning sites, you should
be able to get some more info there.


http://users.moscow.com/oiseming/lc_ant_p/lnk_mtal.htm

http://www.paulwileyspinning.com/

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo

Nick wrote:
Hi all,

I'm having a problem spinning some mirrors for some experiments. The mirrors
are parabolic in shape, and I will place a light globe in the centre. The
trick is for my report I need to compare different curvatures, eg, deep
parabolic bowls and shallow bowls.

Thanks in advance

Nick